Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/438

 Wager passed off, and he continued in command of the fleet, blockading Cadiz and keeping open the communication with Gibraltar till the cessation of hostilities in June 1727, and till the signing of the preliminaries of peace in February 1727-8. In April 1728 he returned to England with some of the ships, the others remaining at Gibraltar, where it was understood that the peace was by no means assured.

In 1729 a large fleet, English and Dutch, under Wager, was still kept in commission in the Channel, and before the implied threat the Spaniards gave way. In June the general pacification was agreed to, and the definitive treaty was signed at Seville on 9 Nov. After the second treaty of Vienna—concluded in March 1731—it was agreed to make the landing of Don Carlos and the Spanish troops at Leghorn an international celebration. On 10 July Wager was promoted to be admiral of the blue; and as the French refused to admit that an English admiral, with his flag at the main, necessarily took precedence of a French vice-admiral, with his flag at the fore, no French ships took part in the function. But an English fleet, under the command of Wager, going to the Mediterranean, joined a Spanish squadron, with the troops on board, and anchored on 15 Oct. at Leghorn. For ten days the festivities were kept up. On the 25th Wager sailed from Leghorn, and arrived at St. Helens on 10 Dec. It was the end of his sea service.

When, in 1739, war with Spain again broke out, Wager was first lord of the admiralty, and, so far as circumstances permitted, organised the fleets for the Channel and West Indies. But the work was difficult, and indeed impossible, for a war even with Spain. In ships, and still more in the administrative departments, the navy was at the very lowest ebb, and the first years of the war were not a success. Wager felt this, and that the responsibility was too great for his advanced years. In March 1742 he retired from the admiralty, and in December was appointed treasurer of the navy. He held this for only a few months, dying on 24 May 1743. In 1747 a monument to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey by Francis Gashry, an associate of Wager's at the navy board, and at that time comptroller of the victualling. His portrait, by Kneller, was lent from Greenwich Hospital to the third loan exhibition at South Kensington in 1868 (Cat. No. 755). Other portraits by Dahl, Gibson, Isaac Whood, and J. Ellys were engraved by Faber and White (, p. 287).

Wager married, on 8 Dec. 1691, Martha, daughter of Anthony Earning, a captain in the parliamentary navy, by Ellen, sister of Nehemiah Bourne [q. v.], but had no issue. His widow died in 1748, and was also buried in Westminster Abbey. The bulk of Wager's property was left to Charles Bolton, the son of his sister Prudence, with legacies to his half-sister, Mary Parker, and niece, Martha Watson.

[Charnook's Biogr. Nav. ii. 437; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, pp. 363. 375; Commission and Warrant Books, List Books, and Captains' Letters in the Public Record Office. Still more important and interesting is his official and semi-official correspondence with the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Delafaye in Home Office Records, Admiralty, vols, lvii-ix., lxi-ii., lxvi-vii.. lxix. See also Campbell's Lives of the Admirals; Burchett's Transactions at Sea, and Lediard's Naval History.]

 WAGER, WILLIAM (fl. 1566), writer of interludes, is known only by his works. These were: 1. 'A very mery and pythie Commedie, called, The longer thou livest, the more foole thou art. A myrrour very necessarie for youth, and specially for such as are like to come to dignitie and promotion: as it maye well appeare in the matter folowynge. Newly compiled by W. Wager. Imprinted at London, by William How for Richard Johnes: and are to be solde at his shop under the Lotterie House,' b.l. n.d. 4to. An account of this interesting interlude is given by Collier in his 'History of Dramatic Poetry' (ii. 248-253). The play is remarkable for the list of old songs quoted by the character Moros in the opening scene. 2.'The Cruell Debtter.' Thomas Colwell's license to print this interlude is entered in 1566 in the 'Stationers' Register' (, i. 307). One leaf survives in Bagford's collection of title-pages and scraps now in the British Museum'(Harl. MS. 5919, leaf 18, back). Two more leaves are in W. B. Scott's black-letter fragments, separately bound, also in the British Museum (C. 40, e. 48). The fragments make it unlikely that the Shylock story was used in the play. 3. 'Tis good sleeping in a whole skin,' a manuscript, said to have been destroyed by Warburton's servant. It may have been the second title of No. 2.

'The History of the Tryall of Chevalry' (1605), reprinted in Mr. A. H. Bullen's' Old English Plays' (iii. 263), has been doubtfully attributed to Wager. More probable is the attribution to him of 'Tom Tyler and his Wife. An excellent old Play, as it was printed and acted about a hundred Years ago. Together with an exact Catalogue of all the playes that were ever yet printed. The Second